Alleged Libyan Rape Victim Flees To Tunisia

Eman al-Obeidy, who made international news when she ran into a Libyan hotel populated by journalists saying she’d been raped, only to be scurried away by authorities, has left Libya for Tunisia. She was able to get help from a Libyan military officer who had defected from Moammar Qaddafi’s army.

She said she left Tripoli in a military car, wearing a head cover that hid everything except one eye.

Al-Obeidy said she entered at the Dahibah border crossing disguised “in the local manner” and was not challenged. She described the trip from Tripoli as “very tiring.”

Along the road to Tunisia, the car she was in was stopped several times at check points, al-Obeidy said. The military officer would show his permit and they would be allowed to continue, she said.

Al-Obeidy said she crossed into Tunisia using a refugee document.

She has said she has not been able to live in peace since the incident and has not been able to go home.

“I usually get harassed when I have to show my Identification card to government officials somewhere and they find out who I am and that I have put complaints forward against Gadhafi’s people,” she said. “They humiliate me to the point where other people gather around and start saying that it is shameful to treat a Libyan woman that way.”